Ohio incorporates 100 Gpbs into statewide network

The state of Ohio has decided to upgrade its own network to support 100G speeds in an effort to create what it believes will be new research and employment opportunities in high tech areas including medical research, higher education, manufacturing, engineering and technology.

Through an agreement with Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) and Juniper (NYSE: JNPR), Ohio will invest about $10 million to put in infrastructure that it says will "open the faucet" of its 1,800-mile fiber network by upgrading the speed from 10G to 100G.

Leveraging the optical network operated by OARnet, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents Ohio Technology Consortium, the 100G network will connect all of the state's major metro areas to northern and southern connection points of Internet2.

Set to be completed by June 2012, the state will spend $8.1 million to put in necessary network equipment to connect Cleveland, Columbus, Cincinnati, Dayton and Toledo. In Phase 2, the network will connect Akron, Athens and Youngstown by October 2012.

In addition, Ohio public and private partners will invest $2.3 million in an innovation center to enable and test 100 Gbps technologies and promote the development of new broadband, software and advanced technology applications. Hosted at Ohio State University, the innovation center will collaborate with a host of national laboratories and research entities including Internet2, NSF-Future Internet Infrastructure (GENI), and UC-Berkeley.